Passed PRINCE2 Foundation + Practitioner

Hi there,

I was given the opportunity to visit a 5-day training to get from zero to PRINCE2 Practitioner by my company.

Both exams were done the classic way (on paper, not CBT), which felt very strange after sitting a lot of computer based tests. Still, the possibility to scribble around in the material was very helpful - much more than taking separate notes. So that was nothing to be annoyed by. I can recommend using either a pencil or one of those Frixion pens that you can erase as well, as I had to frequently change my proposed answers after re-reading questions. The answers are then transferred to a answer sheet which you need to fill out using a pencil only, as this is best for scanning. Traditional pens are disallowed.

The Foundation test is 60 minutes and 75 questions, which ask for the basic knowledge of PRINCE2. No book is allowed, the questions contain 5 unscored "beta" questions, so you need to have 35 right answers (50%) to pass. After going through the training materials for two days, passing was fairly easy. Most things are pretty clear and there is little ambiguity. I would say, this level you can easily achieve with pure self-study. You get an immediate answer if you passed after passing on the answer sheet and also your score. This does not get official before receiving the mail by Peoplecert roughly two days later, though.

Directly after the Foundation exam we started with the Practitioner preparations, going through all existing processes in great detail for the rest of the day. In the evening we were asked to prepare our official PRINCE2 book by applying some quick-reference tabs, just like those on Henny Portman's Blog. This helps in the exam, as you can quickly check the official definitions (it's an open book exam, so that's allowed). Additionally, I looked more into the material for about an hour. Second day was then a group exercise to go through all questions of one of the practice exams which Axelos published. We discussed not only the right answers, but also the wrong ones and why they are wrong. This provided a completely different perspective on the whole framework as opposed to the days before. In fact, this was the point where all those management products, processes and roles started to click. By going through the complete exam, we basically already worked through the different question/answer types and felt well-prepared. In the evening, we were tasked to work on two other question blocks from the second practice exam - that made most of us feel worse. Probably that was just the concentration.

The exam on the next day was the official 150 minutes, but time is really tight. It is advisable to have those quick-reference flaps as well as good time management. Most of our group finished their answers just in the last minutes of the timespan.

The answer sheets (2 per person for the 80 questions involved) are then scanned via an app. That is a good idea in theory, but the official app crashed and timed out all the time. In addition, it has serious weaknesses with recognizing the sheets. The app was said to be only three weeks old, so I guess that will improve over the time. But it was a real downer sitting there and waiting to scan five person's answers over like 40 minutes. Ouch. After scanning, you get a near-immediate provisional Pass/Fail message and then after two days the official results including a topic/score breakdown.

The whole experience was exhausting, especially as you could not simply stop thinking about the topics due to the homework suggested. In fact, I started dreaming weird stuff about the processes in the third night Currently, I think that doing the Practitioner part in self-study will be much more time-intense than the training/group exercise way. We had 14 hours or so which prepared us well, but I think in self study you would probably need 30-45 for the same information. It's simply not apparent how to approach the materials to succeed.

Nonetheless, I would do it again anytime. Good trainer, good environment and a nice small group - that's the recipe for success here.

A remark about the PRINCE2 flaps you can get on Henny Portman's blog: I did print out those on a transparent film, cut them into individual pieces and put them in my book. The experience in the group practice exam showed, that this is not my style of working. In consequence, I ripped out the 26 product flaps and created own ones. One for the glossary (helped much), one for the products overview. The overview I then improved by adding page numbers to the product names. That was much faster and I did not have two layers of flaps on top of each other. So that's maybe something to keep in mind.

So, next I will decide if I add the PRINCE2 Agile one for sake of completeness. I heard it's not really necessary, especially as I have two Scrum certifications. But well.. aren't we all collectors in here?

Have a nice weekend!